The One At Lincoln High
by boddabing
Summary: It's hard enough being the new kid, ex-fat girl, cheerleading captain, school dork, player with a heart, or the well-intending weirdo. Add in surviving high school, and the gang's in for an interesting senior year that will end up changing everything.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey Readers! **

**First of all, I'm so glad to know that there are still passionate Friends fans out there! As a current 17-year-old, I have recently become obsessed with the show, but I have all the seasons of DVD and have seen all episodes! I honestly think it's the best sit-com to be written.**

**I'm an enormous Chandler/Monica (Mondler) fan, and I love Rachel/Ross and Rachel/Joey just about evenly, so I'm not sure which route I'll take in regards to them in this story.**

**Anyways, this story is obviously AU, and just about all the changes are explained in this chapter.**

**I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

><p>"I don't know, Rachel. Are you sure this dress isn't too short?" Monica Geller, the brunette best friend of fellow senior Rachel Green, asked.<p>

"Monica, stop it! I've told you a thousand times that you look amazing. Now are we going to get out of the car or sit here and miss our first day of running Lincoln High?" Rachel Green, a self-admitted daddy's girl and closeted Weekend at Bernie's lover whined.

"Fine," Monica sighed. "But you have to be sure. You're sure, right?"

"Mon, would I send you into school looking anything less than fabulous? I want to have a career in fashion for a reason! Besides, that dress looks great on you. It's not like you're fat anymore. You're skinnier than I am!"

"I know!" Monica exclaimed in true Monica fashion. "Okay, I'm ready. We can get out of the car now."

"Thank God!" Rachel sighed.

The two attractive girls opened their doors in unrehearsed unison and began walking to the front entrance of Lincoln High to begin their senior year.

"Is everyone staring at me?" Monica whispered anxiously. "It feels like everyone's staring at me."

Taking careful not of her friend's seemingly lingering insecurities, Rachel was quick to cover with, "I'm sure they're just checking out my new nose."

Monica did a quick sweep of the other students watching herself and Rachel as they walked and realized that that very well could be the case.

"Good," Monica said, offering a smile to the obvious lower clansman who held the door for her and Rachel. "Because I didn't lose the weight to make everyone feel like they had to fawn over me. I-"

"-lost it for myself." Rachel finished in a tone that made it obvious that she had heard it a thousand times before.

"Exactly."

They came to a stop in front of their side-by-side lockers, pausing in their conversation to input their respective combinations. Rachel reached into what was sure to be a vastly overpriced messenger bag to place her lunch in her locker. Then, she shut it gracefully.

"Hey, Mon," Rachel began, taking note of how Monica had already purchased an individual binder for each of her classes and was currently placing them in order by period in her locker, "where's Ross?"

Monica roller her eyes at the mention of her dorky, twin brother. "He came in early to meet with his bio teacher."

"Oh," Rachel nodded. "So he's still doing that thing."

"What thing?" Monica asked as she shut her locker delicately.

"That thing where he actually cares about his grades," Rachel explained.

"Please," Monica laughed, "that thing is Ross."

"I guess that's true," Rachel laughed. "Honestly, though, how did you share a uterus with someone that lame?"

Monica squirmed, "Okay. First of all, ew! And, secondly, I have no idea. We have absolutely _nothing_ in common."

"Thank God!" Rachel agreed. "Maybe we'll luck out and he won't be in our homeroom this year!"

Monica rolled her eyes. "Rachel, honey, Ross and I have the same last name. If I'm in your homeroom, he is too."

Before Rachel could respond, the first bell rang loudly and annoyingly through the halls.

"Well," Rachel commented lightly, "I guess we have to go find out."

* * *

><p>"And then, then Mr. Tolstoy said that I'll be his best student this year! Can you believe that, Rachel? His <em>best<em> student!"

Rachel smiled politely, but on the inside she was beating her head against the nearest wall.

"Yeah, Ross," she said with feigned interest. "That's great!"

Monica rolled her eyes from her seat. Ross just couldn't take a hint. Then again, Rachel was a pretty convincing liar…

"Ross, do you think you could go be a dork somewhere else? Rachel and I need to talk about something." Monica interrupted.

"Actually I –"

"Go away! My God, I'm going to tell mom about how _you're_ the one that put Dad's records in the microwave!"

Ross's nose twitched for a split second before he shot out a comeback, "I liked you better when you were fat!"

Monica gasped and opened her mouth to retort, but Ross – knowing better than to stick around after "Fat Monica" had been mentioned – bolted back to his own seat in the front of the class.

Rachel watched him run off with an amused smirk on her face. Ross almost had the ability to make being such a dweeb adorable.

"So, what's up?" Rachel asked, turning to face Monica's desk.

"What do you mean?" Monica asked, curiously.

"You just told Ross you had something to tell me," Rachel more asked than stated.

"Oh," Monica nodded. "Right, I only said that to get rid of Ross."

"Monica! I can't believe you would do that!" Rachel exclaimed.

Monica simply raised an eyebrow in return.

"Right," Rachel laughed. "I wouldn't have believed me either."

Once again, the bell rang to signify the need to change to first period. Monica and Rachel both groaned.

"I guess I'll see you at lunch," Rachel said as they stood from their desks.

"How is it possible that we don't have any classes together until fifth period?" Monica whined.

"You'll be fine," Rachel assured. They paused outside their homeroom door, waving half-heartedly at Ross as he fumbled past them.

"Seriously, Mon, you look amazing. You're going to be just fine! Anybody who ever gave you a hard time is going to have to shove their words back up their a—"

"Ms. Green!" a sharp voice cut Rachel off. She turned to fine herself face-to-face with the school's Marine Biology teacher.

"Mrs. Baker!" Rachel squealed. "I am just going to miss your class _so _much this year! You know, you are definitely my favorite teach—"

"Save your brownnosing for your current science instructor, Ms. Green," Mrs. Baker instructed. If it weren't for Ms. Geller so kindly volunteering to tutor you, you wouldn't have passed my coarse. Now, shouldn't you two ladies be getting off to class? Being tardy on the first day does not a good first impression make."

"Absolutely, Mrs. Baker," Monica replied, seriously. "Being late is completely unacceptable, so I suppose we should get going. Shouldn't we, Rach?"

"I could not agree more, Monica!" Rachel smiled. "It was very nice to see you, Mrs. Baker."

Monica and Rachel watched the older woman nod approvingly before heading down the hall to her own classroom. Once they knew she was out of earshot, both burst into laughter.

"Ms. Green!" Monica exclaimed through her giggles. "Don't use such foul profanity in the halls of this fine establishment!"

Rachel continued to laugh, but knew they couldn't delay the inevitable much longer. "Seriously, though, Mon. We should get to class."

"Right," Monica sobered. "I'll see you at lunch. Usual table?"

"First one there saves the seats!"

* * *

><p>Despite Rachel's kind words and assurances, Monica entered her Pre-Calculus class with butterflies in the pit of her stomach. The last time she had walked these halls, she was "Monicow" – the chunky junior who Rachel Green attempted to make popular. Now, however, she was adjusting to her new slim body. And, although she knew it was far better than her old one, she still found herself doubting her image.<p>

Self-consciously, Monica tugged on the hem of her dress for the umpteenth time.

_Now or never,_ she thought to herself. _Just remember what Rachel said. You. Look. Hot._

Plastering a smile on her face, she opened the door. She made a quick scan of the filled desks, hoping desperately for a familiar, friendly face. Some of the desks were occupied by juniors with whom she was not familiar, but her saving grace came in the form of a brunette boy sitting in the back left corner with one empty desk next to him.

"Monica!" the boy called in his usual, overly emphatic way. His New York accent was one of the strongest ones Monica had heard, but she loved him for it.

"Joey!" she squealed back, and practically ran to the desk he was not pointing out for her.

"Look at you!" Joey smiled. "You look amazing!"

"Joey," Monica laughed. "You saw me last week."

"Well, yeah," Joey conceded. "But you weren't wearing that! Honestly, Mon, you look great! In fact… _How you doin'?_"

Monica groaned and shook her head, turning her attention to the teacher who was now taking role.

* * *

><p>Surprisingly, Monica's first four classes went much better than expected. She had ended up with Joey in her first and fourth period, and a new girl named Phoebe – who was only a tad bit strange, but seemed very nice – in her second and third. She also hadn't received any negative comments about her change in appearance. All she got was a "wow" or a "you look amazing" every now and then, which really was nice once she got used to it.<p>

"So, we sitting at the usual table?" Joey asked as he watched Monica pull her lunch from her locker.

"Yeah," Monica said. "Rachel said first people there save the seats, so she might be waiting for us."

"Now there's someone I really haven't seen in forever," Joey smiled. "We should never let her go all the way to Paris for the last month of summer vacation ever again!"

"Joey," Monica laughed, "it was Paris! Wild boars couldn't have stopped her."

"Wild bores?" Joey asked in confusion. The skin between his eyebrows puckered in concentration. "Isn't that one-a those oxy… oxy…"

"Moron!" Monica finished exasperatedly.

"Hey!" Joey frowned. "It was just a question! No need to call me a moron!"

"I didn't mean –" Monica paused, deciding explaining things would only serve to confuse him further. "I'm sorry, Joey."

"Apology accepted," Joey said.

By that time they had reached what had been their lunch table since freshman year. It was in the middle right of the cafeteria, and had a good view of the entire eating area. Also, was one of the few round lunch tables the school had in place. Six chairs formed a circle in which only four seats were normally filled – five, if you counted Joey's occasional flavor of the week.

"Where are Ross and Rachel?" Joey asked.

"I know as much as you do," Monica shrugged. "I'm sure they're on their way."

She took her normal seat, leaving an empty attached stool to her left as Joey sat on her right.

"I'm used to Rachel being the first one here," Joey commented as he pulled out what appeared to be three sandwiches from his lunch.

"Me too," Monica replied. "Wait, wait! There she is!" She gestured to where Rachel was making her way to the table, a brown paper bag in hand.

"Joseph Tribianni!" Rachel squealed, not even trying to mask her excitement. She rushed to the table to give him a hug. Then, suddenly she stiffened and pulled back with a scowl on her face. Without warning she gave him a quick slap on the arm.

"Ow!" Joey exclaimed. "What was that for?" His voice let out a tiny crack as he asked the question, and his hand rubbed his arm carefully.

"You didn't call me the whole time I was in Paris! What kind of friend are you?" Rachel exclaimed as she took the seat next on the other side of Joey.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Joey frowned. "You didn't call me either!"

"Well," Rachel said, but soon paused as she realized he was right. "Well, I – I just thought that it would be more special –"

"Save it, Rach," Joey interrupted. "You're forgiven."

Rachel rolled her eyes, but patted Joey's shoulder affectionately, regardless.

"Who's that?" Monica suddenly asked. She subtly made a glance at a boy, who appeared their age, walking into the cafeteria by himself. Monica thought that she knew all the members of their class, but this new face didn't strike her as familiar. Yet, she did feel like she had seen him somewhere.

He was attractive, that much was obvious. His brown hair was much lighter than Joey's – sandier, you could say. It was also cut shorter than Joey's, making it appear far more preppy and thus more Monica's type. He was wearing a seemingly expensive ensemble, his artfully damaged jeans had a blue button-down shirt tucked into them, and what appeared to be a cream, linen blazer covered that. His white tennis shoes where obviously new, not a scratch or stain in site. But, beyond that, Monica could tell, even with the distance, that his eyes were a bright, vibrant blue.

_So pretty_, Monica thought to herself.

"Oh!" Rachel said. "That's Chandler Bing."

"Why does that name sound so familiar?" Monica asked, finally tearing her eyes away from the attractive stranger.

"His mom, Nora Bing, is a famous mystery author. His dad owns some Fortune 500 advertising company. They live in The City."

"How do you know all of this?" Monica questioned, allowing her eyes to wander back to this Chandler as he appeared to be scanning the lunchroom in search of somebody.

"Mindy blabbered on and on about seeing him in the halls during first period. Apparently, _Forbes_ did a feature on his family last month. I can't remember the exact number, but apparently their net worth is off the charts."

"Then what on Earth is he doing here?" Joey laughed good-naturedly. "And why are we still talking about this guy? With all that money and stuff, he must be a jerk."

"Hey!" Rachel said defensively. "I have money!"

"Exactly!" Joey replied, but was quick to stumble out an apology when Rachel raised her hand to smack him again.

"Thank you," Rachel smiled. "And he's actually a really nice guy, funny too. Maybe a little sarcastic, but when you get used to it it's kind of endearing."

"Okay, now I'm starting to think Mindy's a stalker. How does she know all this stuff?" Monica asked.

"Oh that's not Mindy-talk," Rachel explained. "That's Rachel-talk! He was in my second and third period. We got to talk, and I learned a lot about him. He didn't even try to mention who his family was or anything about how much money he has."

"Well, he's still starting to weird me out," Joey commented. "I mean he's been standing at the head of the room for like five minutes just watching everybody eat!"

Rachel looked as if she remembered something and then stood suddenly.

"Chandler!" she called, not caring when half of the cafeteria turned to look at her. "We're over here!"

Chandler's head whipped around to their table, and it appeared as though he sighed in relief. He offered Rachel a wave and began to walk across the lunchroom towards them.

"What are you doing?" Monica asked quickly.

"I invited him to have lunch with us," Rachel smiled. "Trust me, Mon. You're going to love him."

If only Monica knew how right Rachel would be.

* * *

><p><strong>And that's the first chapter! Thank you for taking the time to read it:)<strong>

**I would love to get your opinion, so reviews are strongly encouraged!**

**Chapter Two will pick up with a slight time jump!**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer: None of these characters, settings, etc. belong to me. However, I do often dream that I own Matthew Perry...**_

_December, 3 months later_

"Hello, children!" came the now familiar, male voice.

Monica, Rachel, Joey, and Ross all looked up from their lunches, and – sure enough – Chandler Bing was approaching their table. He was dressed in his usual obviously expensive and preppy clothes, the matureness of the outfit countered only by his omnipresent white tennis shoes and his boyish grin.

"You sure sound happy," Monica noted as he took the empty seat between her and Joey. "Were you finally able to end your quest for nude Molly Ringwald photos?"

"Unfortunately no," Chandler frowned. He ignored Joey's own groan, and continued with his news. "I do, however, have three _courtside_ tickets to tomorrow night's Knicks' game!"

"Three courtside seats? Dude, how did you get those?" Joey exclaimed, his eyes already widening with excitement.

"My dad's company is doing some campaigns for one of their sponsors, and my dad said he had no use for them. So he gave them to the Chan-Chan Man!"

"First of all," Rachel inserted, "please refrain from ever calling yourself that again."

"And secondly," Monica continued, "three seats?"

"Well, yeah!" Chandler answered, easily. "One for me, one for Ross, and one for myself."

Monica and Rachel raised their eyebrows expectantly. The two of them both crossed their arms over their chests indignantly.

"What?" Chandler asked. "What? Come on, the two of you ditched us at Joey's last weekend when we were watching the game! I didn't think you would want to go!"

"Fine," Monica shrugged. "We don't care."

"Right," Rachel said with a shrug of her own. "I couldn't care less."

"Rach, don't you have to go see Mr. Self before fifth period?" Monica asked, raising both of her eyebrows to imply that the answer was yes.

"Um, yeah, I have to talk to him about that – that thing that he wanted to talk to me about," Rachel stammered. "But he totally gives me the creeps when no one else is in the room. Come with me, Mon?"

"Absolutely!" Monica smiled a little too cheerfully.

Both girls stood from their respective seats, not bothering to pick up their lunches.

"Bye, Joey! Bye, Ross!" Rachel said sweetly.

"I'll see you in sixth, Joe. Ross, I'll see you at home," Monica said.

As Rachel and Monica both turned to walk away, Chandler's voice stopped them.

"What about me?" he asked.

"Right!" Monica laughed, smacking herself in the head. "I almost forgot! Chandler, could you throw away our trash for us? You know how much I hate messes."

* * *

><p>"Come on, Joe," Chandler pleaded. "This can't be the first time they've been mad! You or Ross has to know how to fix this!"<p>

Joey shut his locker and turned to his best friend. "If you want to make it up to Rachel, just buy her something. You've got the money for that!"

Chandler did a quick sweep of the hall before responding. "Rachel's not exactly the one that I'm concerned about."

"Dude," Joey grinned, "Monica has you buy the nu – "

"Du-ude!" Chandler interrupted. "Shut up!"

"Chandler," Joey laughed, "we're the only one's in the hall. The final bell rang fifteen minutes ago. Speaking of which, what took you so long to get here?"

The two of them began their walk out to the parking lot.

"What took me so long is the fact that I waited by Monica's locker for ten minutes waiting for her to stop by before leaving."

"Really? How did that go?" Joey asked.

"Well, considering I'm willing to take your advice on how to get her to forgive me, I'm gonna say not very well! She turned and walked away the second she saw me from around the corner!"

By that time, they had reached Chandler's BMW 325.

"Can we take a second and focus on the real problem here?" Joey asked.

"Pray tell, what is the real problem here?" Chandler asked, pulling his keys from his pocket and popping the trunk for his books.

"Why won't you let me drive your car?"

* * *

><p>Chandler wiped his hands off on his cream, cashmere sweater before ringing the doorbell in front of him.<p>

There was a long enough pause between his action and the opening of the door for him to completely rethink his plan, but he knew that there was really no turning back.

"Chandler!" Judy Geller, dressed in her usual sweater set and dress pants, greeted. "Ross had Biology club after school today, but I'm sure he'll be home any minute if you want to come inside."

Chandler took this as his cue to step into the foyer.

"Actually, Mrs. Geller, I'm here to see Monica. Any chance that she's around?"

Chandler noted how Judy's face seemed to falter at the mention of her daughter. He had heard Monica's stories on how Ross was highly favored by her parents – something about a medical marvel. Chandler shook his head. How could her parents favor Ross when Monica was – when Monica was –

"She's in the basement. Why do you need to see Monica, dear?"

"I'm afraid I might have upset her at school today," Chandler admitted, worried that he would be asked to leave. "I'm hoping to apologize."

"Well, Monica is known to overreact. Go ahead and go down stairs."

Chandler refrained from rolling his eyes and did what he was told. The pathway to the Geller basement had become familiar to him. He worked his way across the living room and down the stairs without hesitation.

He saw her sitting on the couch, her eyes fixated on MTV. Her hand was absentmindedly reaching into a bowl of popcorn and every few seconds a crunch of her chewing resonated through the room.

"Hey, Mon," Chandler said carefully, not wanting to startle her or anger her.

Her head whipped around, and she grimaced.

"What do you want, Chandler?"

Chandler sighed and gave the carpet a nudge with the toe of his white sneaker.

"I know that you're mad at me, and – while I don't fully understand the reason why – I want to make it up to you."

He watched as Monica's mouth twitched with a smirk, and she gestured for him to move to the other side of the couch.

As he made his transition, Chandler continued to talk.

"I guess it was kind of rude to invite the guys to something with me without inviting you and Rachel too. So, I'm sorry for that."

He stopped when he stood directly in front of her.

"I'm listening," Monica said. Her eyebrow lifted, urging him to continue.

"Right," Chandler nodded. "The point is that not inviting the two of you to come with us to The City wasn't very considerate. But, I think I've found a way to get you to forgive me."

"Which would be…"

Chandler reached into his back pocket and pulled out an envelope. He handed it to Monica excitedly and took a seat next to her on the couch.

Monica tore the envelope open slowly, almost nervous to see what was inside. Chandler was being so sweet, trying desperately to make her happy with him again. Plus, he seemed so enthused by whatever he was giving her. She hoped that she wouldn't have to let him down if he had gotten her something that she would have no interest for.

All those thoughts came to a stop when she saw what she held in her hand.

"Oh my God," Monica squealed. "You got us tickets to Les Miserable _and _Phantom of the Opera! I only mentioned wanted to see these once and it was _months _ago! Chandler, thank you!"

"You don't have to thank me," Chandler was quick to rebut. "I owed you. I'm really sorry that I didn't consider inviting you and Rachel."

Monica leaned over and wrapped Chandler in a tight hug. She kissed his cheek before pulling away.

"No, Chandler, we overreacted. You were right, we would have no interest in seeing a Knicks game."

"Still," Chandler reasoned, "we're a group. We should be doing stuff like this together, that way when we get back from our trips nobody feels left out when stories from them come up."

"Chandler, this really means a lot to me. But, I understand if you don't want to take Rachel and me to New York. You have this big guy's trip planned, and I don't want to interfere with it."

Monica tried to hand the envelope back to Chandler, but he gently pushed her hands away.

"You're not going to be interfering with anything. I promise. The five of us can fit in my car, and trust me when I say there is more than enough room in our Manhattan apartment for everyone to have a place to crash."

"Only if you're sure," Monica said, still uncertain that this was what he wanted.

"Monica, there is nothing I would love more than having you come with us."

Chandler rubbed her shoulder affectionately and opened his mouth to say something else, but Monica spoke first.

"And Rachel."

Chandler's hand on her shoulder ceased its movement, and he furrowed his brow.

"What about Rachel?"

"There's nothing you'd love more than having Rachel and me come with you," Monica explained.

"Oh," Chandler cleared his throat and removed his hand from her shoulder. "Right, Rachel too. But enough about the trip, the new Flock of Seagulls video just came on. Turn it up!"

Monica laughed and did as she was instructed.

"You know, your obsession with them is boarder line creepy."

"Please," Chandler scoffed. "It's not like I'm going to go get one of those ridiculous haircuts. I just appreciate the music." His comment was followed by an uneasy laugh.

"You really want one of those haircuts, don't you?" Monica asked, amused.

"Is it that obvious?"

* * *

><p><strong>So this update took forever. I sincerely apologize! Thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter! It means a lot to me!<strong>

**This chapter was a lot shorter than the last chapter, so I also apologize for that! Hopefully you readers still enjoyed it!**

**Thank you so much for reading! **

**I would love to hear your thoughts/opinions/suggestions, so feel free to drop me a review!**


End file.
